Do you belive in Ghosts?
by LittleStories
Summary: Ru never does. It's just that, he meets one in another country while healing his brain tumor. And this particular ghost suddenly has a crush on him! But she's too sincere so she just tries to enjoy all basketball moments together...
1. Brain Tumor

Chapter 1

"Rukawa... you don't look all right." Ayako said as she watched Rukawa hit his head in the basketball ring when he tried to do the slam dunk.

"Ahahaaaa!!!" Sakuragi said as he pointed to Rukawa, "The 'all-star' thought his head was the basketball!!! Ahahahhahaaaaaa!!!" he laughed as he pointed to Rukawa who was massaging his head.

_I must have dozed off while shooting the ball..._ Rukawa said as he massaged his head. He glared at Mitsui and Miyagi who were laughing at him. The two 'eeped' and continued to mime Rukawa hitting his head in the ring when Rukawa was not looking.

_Hn, Baka..._ Rukawa thought.

"Rukawa... I don't still understand," Rukawa's mother said as she wiped a wet cloth on her son's head, "You keep dozing off in school and bumping your bicycle into things. Your teacher tells me that you keep sleeping in his class. Is there something wrong?"

Rukawa touched his mother's hand. He was lying down in the bed (the 'bed' the Japanese use) and he had a very high fever. Rukawa held her mother's hand and her mother let go of the cloth and held his hand. Then Rukawa closed his eyes and the next thing his mother knew, he was dozing off.

Rukawa's mother sighed as she tapped her son's forehead. Then she kissed her son in the cheek and whispered 'good night', closed the door and left.

Rukawa opened his eyes and stared at the darkness in the room. He couldn't sleep, that was for sure.

_Sometimes..._ he thought. He wished he could stay forever in the basketball court.

_In this world,_ he thought, _I sleep because there is nothing new. But the gym... there is always something new. I don't need to sleep. _

Slowly... he drifted off to sleep. He didn't realize it but it was already 2 am.

"Rukaaawaaa!!!!!!" the new teacher said. Although a new teacher, he was a tough one. Rukawa continued snoring, drool coming out of his mouth. The teacher stood beside Rukawa and than tapped Rukawa's book in his head.

Rukawa's sleepy eyes opened, stared nowhere and said, "Oh..." and went back to sleep.

"Rukkkkkkaaaaaaawaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the teacher shouted. "You can't even wake up even when SOMEONE yells FIRE!!!"

Instantly, Rukawa stood up, took his seatmate's jug opened it in one swift movement and immediately splashed over the new teacher.

"Rukawa! Why did you do that???" he shouted sputtering in the water.

Rukawa looked at him and studied the teacher with the same uninterested and tired eyes. Then he placed his hands in his pockets and said, "I thought someone yelled fire..." he muttered.

"To the principal's office!!!!!!" he shouted.

_Another hotheaded teacher..._ he thought as he dully walked to the path to the principal's office for the hundredth time.

Again, that was the tenth time that he hit his head in the basketball ring today. Rukawa massaged his head while Hanamichi, Mitsui, and Miyagi started laughing aloud. From the side, he could see the other girls who wanted to run to him and give him their handkerchiefs. He also noticed Haruko who looked the most worried among all of them.

_Haruko is the best type of fan,_ Rukawa thought as he passed them, _then again, who cares?_ However, as he passed Haruko, he took her handkerchief and said thanks. Haruko fainted.

Coach Ansai started another game, the first years and the second years. Rukawa is in the second year. They had lost and won some games and now, they are one of the top ranking schools.

Sakuragi had grown a little more belief in him. At least now, Sakuragi was a little bit humble in basketball however outside the court, he was the ultimate terror.

Of course, he was still bragging about what a genius he is.

"Miyata, pass the ball to me! Pass the ball to mee!!" Sakuragi said from the other end. Miyata looked at the other side and saw Rukawa nodding sideways to say no and pointing at himself. Miyata sighed. A year has passed and Sakuragi and Rukawa are still fighting over the ball. Because of his thinking, a first year grabbed the ball from him.

"Hey!" Miyata said. Kogure cheered his teammate (the first year) on. Rukawa ran to steal the ball from the first year. When Sakuragi saw that, he didn't want the spotlight all to Rukawa again and he also chased the first year. Halfway running, they looked at each other and the spark in their eyes that they were challenging the other.

Then Rukawa fell to the floor. He just fell, he didn't trip. The first year shot the ball and danced around in celebration while Kogure and Miyagi patted him the back.

Meanwhile, Sakuragi was poking Rukawa.

"Uh, Rukawa, are you still alive?" he asked as he poked Rukawa. "Rukawa?" Sakuragi said as he poked Rukawa again. No answer. "Uh, hey guys," he shouted to all of them, "I'm not sure but maybe Rukawa is dead."

The others looked to Sakuragi and saw Rukawa on the floor. The girls, including Haruko wanted to go and help him up however the Coach Ansai stopped them. Ayako went over to Rukawa and felt his forehead. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"He's got a very high fever." she said. Then to a first year, "You, go to the clinic and call the nurse." The first year backed away, unsure. "Hurry!" she said. Then the first year ran.

"We have to bring him to the clinic." Akagi said.

"But what about the first year that I sent to get the nurse?" Ayako asked.

"Let the first nurse worry about going back." Akagi said as he placed Rukawa's arm around his shoulder. "Kogure," he said, "Continue the training."

"Uh, yes Akagi!" Kogure said as he watched Rukawa.

"You are bringing me nowhere." Rukawa said as he towered over the three doctors who were to carry him in a stretcher. They were in the clinic and the nurse had called the ambulance. Rukawa was actually sleeping however when he realized that some people were trying to carry him, he immediately stood up. Then Akagi explained that Rukawa had to go to the hospital. Rukawa didn't want that.

"We have to." the nurse who was a guy said, "There is an irregularity in your heartbeat. Please don't move that much."

"I do not need anything." Rukawa said as he started walking outside the clinic, "Miyagi, Mitsui, Sakuragi, let's go to the gym."

BLAG! He lost consciousness again. Ayako hit her head in amazement. The doctors just looked stupid idly.

Rukawa had been in the hospital for some time. He had missed the game and the practice. Their team had won with Kogure and a first year replacing him. He had so long wanted to get out. He didn't want that Kogure and the others would win without him. But they did win and they visited Rukawa and had a party in the room where Sakuragi started boasting again.

However now, the pain in his head was troubling him increasingly. The doctors said that it was a tumor. It was small though and the best way to heal Rukawa was a resting place. The doctors told Rukawa that he had to go to another country.

"You will bring me nowhere." Rukawa said as he stared at the doctors. "You will bring me nowhere..."

"You have to Rukawa..." the doctors said, "We cannot heal your tumor if you do not cooperate."

"I don't want to heal it." Rukawa said as coldly as possible.

The doctor sighed. "You like basketball don't you?" he asked. Rukawa just stared at the ceiling, "Well, if you do not heal that tumor of yours, your hair will start falling off and you will be weak to play basketball."

Instinctively, Rukawa touched his hair.

"Yes." the doctor said, "you may loose your hair."

"Ahahahahhaaaaaaa!!!!!" Sakuragi said, "Rukawa will lose his hair!" he said while pointing Rukawa. Miyagi, Mitsui, Akagi, and Ayako hit him in the head.

Rukawa stared from the window at the airplane. He didn't want to be there. He wanted to be down there at the ground, his feet secure. He didn't want to leave. His teammates had prepared a goodbye party the day before. Even now, they all were there in the airport. Sakuragi had thrown him an awful remark however when he was a few seconds of leaving, he cried. It wasn't only Sakuragi. Almost everyone was crying (and annoyingly, the girls who tried to outdo each other by crying the loudest) even Coach Ansai. He knew he would miss them all.

"Bye." he had said before following his mother to the plane. Even Haruko couldn't stop herself and hugged Rukawa. Even if Rukawa wasn't that type of person, he had let her hug him because that might be the last hug he would receive in Japan. Then, Haruko un-hugged Rukawa and looked down blushing. Rukawa looked back at all of them.

_I'm not exactly sentimental..._ he thought, _However, basketball has been my life... if... ack, Rukawa, say it. Just one goodbye. Hit Sakuragi. That may be the last punch. Rukawa... go..._

However, before he could do it all, he fell down in a BLAG! He had obviously fallen asleep again.

He had awoken as the airplane was turning away. Rukawa watched, as the runway became a blur when the airplane started running. He had watched, as the grass grew nothing but a carpet and then to nothing. Rukawa hit the chair in front of him. The man in front if him argued with him however Rukawa was thinking something else.

_I'm not in Japan in a few moments. _he thought, _No more Akagi, no more Sakuragi... Miyata... Miyagi... Kogure... Haruko... Coach Ansai... Shohoku... no more basketball the way I play it... Everything will be different. So different. Just when I was so happy..._

Her mother held his hand and Rukawa leaned his head on his mother's and cried silently as his mother wiped away the tears.

It was pandemonium! There were little kids running around the corridors playing. Some were in wheelchairs and racing around the hallway.

"Why are there so many kids?" his mother asked the nurse.

The nurse smiled and said, "It's like that. It's Halloween in a few days. The children are playing around. They can't wait for tomorrow and the costumes. You must be... Rukawa, Kaede." Rukawa didn't notice as he was too busy watching a kid get hit by a kid in a wheelchair. The nurses ran to the boy who was hit. Just now that he was angry, Rukawa hated children. He heard giggling at his back and although he didn't look, he knew those were nurses giggling and looking at him.

"You'll be in room 13" the nurse said. Rukawa nodded. Then he sat down in a tiny chair (meant for five year olds) because his head hurt. There weren't any large chairs.

He watched the kids play and even scaring a little kid who wanted to touch his head.

"Rukawa." her mother said, "I have to go to the office and sign some papers. Will you stay here?" she asked. Rukawa didn't want to however he felt sleepy at the moment so he nodded. Then her mother left. Just then, a little girl wearing a fairy costume went up to him, Rukawa wanted to scare her away but she didn't notice.

"Masakit? (Does it hurt?)" she said while pointing to his head. Rukawa looked at the kid blankly and then he pointed to his head.

"Bandage." he said.

When the other children saw that the tall guy who was sitting in a small chair wasn't harming the girl, they crowded to him. There must've been twenty children in there.

The children all looked at each other and talked. They were all ages from three to twelve.

"Anong pangalan mo? (What's your name?)" a kid, who was wearing a Barney costume, asked.

Rukawa stared blindly at the little kid. Then he noticed that the kid was looking at the small chair he was sitting on. He guessed that maybe they were asking something about the chair.

Rukawa scratched his chin with his pointer, confused, and said, "Little Chair...."

"Little Chair... Little Chair..." every kid said, passing Rukawa's "name" to every kid. Then he noticed that the nurses where giggling. Rukawa stared blankly at the kids who were whispering "Little Chair" to each other.

"Who... are... you...?" He said, trying to remember his English lessons. The children all looked at each other and Rukawa was confused why the children wore confused expressions on their faces.

A nurse tapped his shoulder. "They don't know English." she said. Rukawa stared at him blankly as he remembered his English classes. Soon, the meaning of the words, "They don't know English." sunk to his bones. He nodded.

The nurse was a man. "I'm TonTon." he said while holding out his hand. Rukawa held out his hand and shaked TonTon's hand. Now, Rukawa wished that he did not sleep to often in the English Teacher's class. At least he understood that the man's name was TonTon. But it was a weird name.

"Why TonTon?" Rukawa asked. He pointed to the nametag stuck in TonTon's shirt. It read 'Anton'.

"Oh," Anton said, "TonTon is just my short name. My full name is Anton. Some people call me TonTon. Others Ton. You can pick any."

Rukawa nodded, glad that he understood what Anton was saying.

"Anton." he said.

"Yes?" Anton said.

"No...ok if i... call... you Anton?" Rukawa asked. Anton laughed, amused that the tall guy in the small chair was talking like a child.

"Yes, you can call me that." Anton said.

Now what will happen to Rukawa in the hospital? It turns out, he's been sleeping too much in English class? What country is he in?


	2. Musical Box

Chapter 2

"Little Chair! Little Chair!" a small kid said to Rukawa. Rukawa groaned. The last thing he needed was to be called Little Chair. He had soon learned that the kids had asked for his name and he had said Little Chair. Although he tried telling the children that his name was Rukawa, all the children found it hard to say so they stuck to Little Chair.

Rukawa knew from his mother, an hour before she left that he was in the country of the Philippines. He did not get to see that much of the view since he had been sleeping the whole time that the taxi was traveling.

Rukawa glared fiercely at the kid and walked off. The little kid shrugged her shoulders and played with her playmates.

Rukawa walked around the corridors of the small hospital that consisted of ten floors. He did notice that nurses and women were staring at him as he passed by.

_Ptoui!_ he thought, _If you all knew that I am just a senior, what would you do?_

He entered the elevator and there he saw a girl who was bouncing up and down. She looked like she was fifteen although he wasn't so sure since she was bouncing.

"Hurry, hurry!!" the girl said. Rukawa looked at his back and found no one so he thought maybe the girl was talking to him. Not looking at her, he coolly and _slowly_ made his way to the elevator. He pressed the button for the ground floor. The girl kept jumping.

When the elevator reached the ground floor, the girl suddenly whizzed ahead of him. Rukawa, not caring for those kind of things, went to the direction of the basketball court. His mother had left him just two days ago and showed Rukawa the basketball court that she found while walking at the back of the hospital. Then she gave him a basketball so that he could have something to play with. Rukawa sighed when he remembered that he left the basketball in his room.

Nevertheless, he walked to the basketball area. Once, he thought that he lost the way to the back of the hospital when he saw at a not well-lighted corridor, a door at the end. Rukawa's eyes shone when he saw the door and took not one moment to notice the sign at the side that was written in big bold letters, and walked in the door.

The moment that his mother showed the basketball court, he realized that he could not wait to play in it. There were the benches at the side and the paint was well done. He placed his hands in his pocket and stared at the hoop. He could feel his hand itching to play. He could nearly feel it wanting to dribble the ball and shoot it.

"_Don't tire yourself too much." the doctor had said. _

Rukawa shook the thought away. Since when would he listen to what the doctors would say? Itching to run around and play basketball, he pretended to imagine that he was dribbling the ball and he had imaginary opponents. He imagined the first Ryonan and Shohoku practice match. He tried to remember the scene and the panting members of Shohoku and Ryonan. Then he started playing the game and made moves, wondering if which move could've made them win that very first match. Then he did a lay-up and his imaginary ball shoots the ring.

He was about to start another lay-up when he heard giggling. Rukawa looked around. No one was there. He was a man who did not believe in ghosts, much less, he was not afraid of them. He made another lay-up. This time, he heard the giggling again. This time, it wasn't faint but solid in voice.

Rukawa looked around and was surprised to see a woman sitting in one of the benches. The sun was pouring on her and she had a sweet smile. She was wearing a thick pink dress and a hat that had a red ribbon to secure the hat. She even had an umbrella to protect herself from the heat of the sun.

Rukawa shook his head. Was he dreaming? He looked at the woman again and she was standing up, delicately holding up her skirt so that it won't be spoiled. She still had the umbrella on top of her. It was then that he noticed that she was wearing pink gloves.

She walked up to him. Rukawa stayed rooted to the spot. He recognized that the dress she was wearing might have come from a rich family in the 18th century.

She had a confused expression as she looked at him. "What were you doing?" she asked, tilting her head sideways in a confused expression.

Rukawa ignored her and started to walk to the door, to leave the basketball court.

"Come back tomorrow will you?" she said softly and calmly. She wasn't even shouting even thought Rukawa felt like she wanted to shout to make sure he heard it.

Rukawa pretended not to hear and closed the door.

"I've often wondered why you aren't staying in your room." Anton said.

Rukawa ignored Anton. He didn't want to stay in his room. It was boring. He really did not like kids but it was much better than staying in his room and doing nothing. There was nothing to do there and there was no TV. At least in the children's area, there was a TV and the TV was on to a basketball game.

The little girl tugged his shirt. Rukawa looked at her. She was so small that he towered over him. His blue eyes showed that he did not want to be disturbed. The girl looked shyly at him. In her other hand was a teddy bear. "M-my name is Kyla." she said, looking shyly. Rukawa looked at her for a second and then looked back at the TV screen where the team from San Miguel (San Miguel is a beer company who formed a basketball team) shot the ball.

_Ptoui!_ Rukawa thought, _I could do much better than that. _But deep inside, he knew that he couldn't. He couldn't wait to go downstairs to the basketball court later after he watched the game.

He slowly turned open the knob. He was greeted by a warm smell of flowers. It did smell good and made him feel enthusiastic to play. There was even a soft song playing in his ears. He closed the door and saw the woman again, sitting in the bench with the same clothing as yesterday. He saw the musical box that was the source of music in the court.

"...close that..." Rukawa said as he walked beside her and looked at the musical box so that she'll know that he wanted the musical box closed. She nodded and closed it. Rukawa went to the middle of the court and then dribbled the ball and did a three point shot. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl look amazed. He felt pleased with himself that in this country, someone was able to see how good he was in basketball.

After an hour of practicing basketball, he placed his hands on his knees panting. He was tired. He was even sweating.

"Here..." said a voice beside him. He looked up and saw the girl again. She had placed her pink umbrella over Rukawa so that he won't get to hot. In her gloved hand was a handkerchief, pink and embedded with laces. Rukawa looked away. The girl looked confused.

"It's not right to not accept a handkerchief from a woman when she gives it to you...?" she said, confused with Rukawa's actions. Rukawa suddenly lost the appetite to play and he took his basketball and left the court.

"Rukawa! Cawee me!" a boy said.

"No! Me cawee first!" another kid said. Rukawa sighed. It all started when he carried the girl named Kyla because she wanted to be carried. She kept saying hi to Rukawa whenever he was there so when she asked if she could have a ride on Rukawa's shoulders, he let her, not even knowing what he was doing.

Instantly, the little kids were swarming up to him.

"Cawweeeee Meeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!" the kids kept saying. Rukawa was so tall that they wanted to feel. Rukawa could hear the nurses giggling. He could hear that they were saying that how cute he looked like with all the kids swarming over him. Too bad, he didn't want these kids swarming over him. His head suddenly felt dizzy and his eyes showed that it was going in circles.

"Ok, ok.." the girl nurses and Anton said, "It's time that you leave Rukawa alone ok? He needs rest too and he musn't be stressed out to much ok?"

The little children sadly walked away and engrossed themselves with other activities.

"Did they irritate you?" Anton asked, with an amusement in his voice.

Rukawa did not answer and instead, looked the basketball game in the TV. He watched as a member from Alaska (Alaska is a brand of milk and my favorite team who made their own basketball team) grab the ball from a member in from San Miguel. Rukawa watched with intensity at the game, hoping that he would have someone to play with.

Anton broke his line of thoughts. "You know," he said, "These kids can get rowdy at times but just you wait till Halloween comes. They get even rowdier than usual. They are going treat or treating in a few days. Care to come?"

"...."

"Ok, I take that as a no." Anton said as he helped a kid who accidentally bumped his head on a table.

"Oh hey!" the girl said again when Rukawa closed the door to the gym. Rukawa looked at her and then started to dribble the ball. He's been going there for five days and the girl had been always there. Sometimes, she would politely offer him a sandwich (which he totally ignored), or lent her handkerchief when he was sweating (that he totally ignored too). Now, she had a small picnic spread out at the side of the court with a picnic basket. Rukawa noticed the picnic when he was halfway shooting a three point. He missed the shot.

The girl apparently noticed that Rukawa was looking at her direction. She waved her hand to him. Rukawa, feeling like an idiot, held up his hand as id waving back. The girl smiled and motioned for him to come to the picnic she had.

_She really must love that umbrella..._ Rukawa thought, _She always has that over her head. And she even has a hat with a red ribbon... Girls..._ he thought.

Rukawa sat down at the opposite of the picnic. She had laid out a large cloth so that they could sit in it. It was pink and red checkered. The girl took out from her basket sandwiches, chicken, pasta, two plates, two forks, two cups, and Coke. Rukawa stared at the food laid out for the two of them. It was almost as if the girl was so sure that he would eat with her!

She placed a sandwich, a chicken, and some macaroni in his plate and handed it to Rukawa. Rukawa, who was still surprised, took it. He was even more surprised when he saw that the plate was made of glass, china glass. And, not to his surprise, the plate was of the color pink.

"Who are you?" he suddenly blurted out.

The girl who was halfway about to eat her macaroni, placed the macaroni back to the plate and looked at Rukawa. It was then that Rukawa noticed that she had such a delicate face. Her eyes were black and seemed to shine. Her cheeks looked so soft and she had such a graceful manner!

She smiled gently, "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself." she said, giggling as if wondering how it was that she forgot to introduce herself, "My name is Claire. Some people call me Clara. You can call me any name you wish to. I'm fifteen. And you are?"

Dumbfounded, Rukawa nodded. He wasn't falling for her but he was just surprised that there could be a woman like her! Claire looked at him confused.

"Rukawa." was all Rukawa said as he started eating. He did try his best to eat in a polite manner. When they had finished eating, Claire poured Coke for Rukawa and her.

"Here." she said as she handed the Coke to Rukawa. Rukawa took the Coke and drank it. He stretched his legs and looked around the basketball court staring at nothing.

"What were you playing?" Claire asked. Rukawa looked at Claire, surprised that she did not know what basketball was. As if reading Rukawa's mind, Claire said, "We are not allowed to play any game that men play." she said.

Rukawa nodded in understanding. He stood up to play another game, completely forgetting that he still had to answer Claire's question.

"Can you teach me?" Claire asked as she stood up. Rukawa looked at Claire from head to foot. He could not imagine Claire play. She was the classic girls from the past who could not even take breaking their toenails or anything.

Rukawa looked at the sky and saw that it was nearly dark. "Tomorrow." he gruffly said as he ran to the door and closed it, leaving Claire to fix the picnic up.

How was it? Was it all right? Pwease Review!


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